Network Diagramming Channel Feature

OPNET's Network Diagramming Solution NetMapper 'Offers Something for Everyone'

By Carrie Schmelkin
TMCnet Web Editor

When it comes to network diagramming automation software, it seems that every IT organization is trying to get its hands on a solution because when it comes to tasks like network planning, documentation, and auditing, the amount of headaches that can ensue are endless.

Fortunately for IT departments out there, from the one-man show to the larger team, OPNET Technologies (News - Alert) offers NetMapper, a solution that eradicates the cumbersome effort associated with network diagramming by automatically publishing up-to-date network diagrams.

“NetMapper is for everybody,” Ankit Agarwal, associate vice president of engineering at OPNET, told TMCnet. “Right now people might think of it as just a network diagram, but it’s a complete network documentation tool and you need documentation for pretty much anything you do with the network. You need a starting point; you need to know what is out there and NetMapper provides the foundation for that because you have your inventory reports, you have your diagrams, you have your device configuration files archived, and you have all the data that you need to do any next step. From the largest networks to the smallest networks you need this information.”

OPNET’s NetMapper creates up-to-date network diagrams containing detailed physical and logical views, including Layer 2/3, OSPF, EIGRP, MPLS, VLANs, and BGP. Moreover, the network diagramming solution creates rich, multi-layered network diagrams in the industry standard Microsoft (News - Alert) Visio format.

While the typical customer is usually the entire IT department, as NetMapper offers something for everyone, it is particularly useful for those responsible for network documentation. To OPNET, network documentation refers to the entire gamut of diagrams – from inventory to config archives – and NetMapper gives you that comprehensive documentation.

“People spend a lot of time generating diagrams of their networks so this is a big boon for them,” Pradeep Singh, senior vice president of engineering at OPNET, told TMCnet.

Another use case of NetMapper is for network auditing especially since some of the standards like the PCI (News - Alert) standard require IT managers to have network diagrams. NetMapper has found a home for those IT staffers who are responsible for producing reports that go into auditing and network troubleshooting because those that have to debug network problems often wish to have diagrams that can show them how things are interconnected not just at the physical level but also at the logical level.

Moreover, those staffers who are responsible for network planning and change staff might also be clamoring for the solution because when people make a change, they want to first run that change by the committee and create a virtual representation of the network. With NetMapper, they can create physical and logical diagrams to model and review it with people, according to Singh.

With NetMapper touching various members of the IT department, it might not be all that surprising to learn that the network diagramming solution has found a home across all the verticals from healthcare to finance to education.

“Everybody is trying to run their network efficiently,” Singh said. “Everyone wants to have minimum downtime and increased efficiency from the network so they look for help from automated tools. No one wants to start generating a diagram when there is a need for it; they want the up-to-date diagram to be readily available when they need it. Any IT organization finds it useful.”

Another use case for NetMapper is the individual who is trying to determine why his/her application is running slow, particularly since application performance is so imperative in today’s IT world. Typically, service is measured by how well applications are performing, and NetMapper helps bring network awareness to application performance management.

“More and more we see that IT is one organization,” Agarwal said. “It used to be the case that they were responsible for the network and the applications all together but as organizations get bigger, there are different lines of business with their own applications. They are getting more involved and asking for more insight into the network that supports their applications. We find that even if the IT department is maintaining the solution, it’s the end user that wants to know what is going on with their application.”

For more on NetMapper, click here.